While He Slept
by HappilyImperfect
Summary: A lot happened while Peeta slept... A one-shot that may eventually be continued.


**This is basically a take on what might have happened to Peeta if something different happened at the feast. Enjoy!**

* * *

'_I've brought you a treat,' says Katniss, 'I found a new patch of berries a little further downstream.' Oh, that's good, she's got over how I won't let her go to the Feast. Without hesitation, I open my mouth for the first spoonful. Hm. It tastes familiar somehow. I swallow, before frowning._

'_They're very sweet.' I say._

'_Yes, they're sugar berries,' Katniss says, loading up the spoon again, 'My mother makes jam from them. Haven't you ever had them before?' She pokes the spoon, complete with the 'sugar berry' mixture, into my mouth. This is puzzling. I never remember having these 'sugar berries' before._

'_No,' I say, 'But they taste familiar. Sugar berries?'_

'_Well, you can't get them in the market much, they only grow in the wild.' She feeds me another mouthful. The name 'sugar berries' doesn't ring a bell at all. But the taste..._

'_They're sweet as syrup,' I say, taking yet another spoonful into my mouth. 'Syrup.' I repeat. No! Sleep syrup! How could Katniss...? I attempt to spit out the remaining contents of my mouth, but she clamps her hand over it hard, forcing me to swallow. So I try to vomit it up, but, oh, I can barely keep my eyes open. I feel so... so... tired..._

_How could she do this? Can't she ever do what anybody asks her? I just wanted her to be safe... but she obviously misinterpreted my behaviour._

_I'm just fading away into unconsciousness when I hear Katniss' faint voice whisper, 'Who can't lie, Peeta?'_

* * *

I awake, but don't open my eyes at first. I wonder how long I've been out for? Hours? Days? I hope it is not the latter, but even more so, I hope that Katniss is back, here in the cave with me, and I hope she's alright. But she can't be dead, no way, she's too smart for that. If it was too dangerous, she wouldn't have gone in for it. Then again, if she thought it was to help me...

No, don't think like that, Peeta. She's fine. Plus she had that bow to protect her. Though _somebody_ must have died, I think to myself, somebody always does.

I open my eyes, but instead of the inside of the cave, I now see a startlingly white room. I rest on an equally-white bed, strapped in around my wrists and ankles. There's a tube plugged in to my arm with some kind of liquid flowing through. I must be back in the Capitol. But that means... We did it! We won! I've no idea what Katniss did, but whatever it was, it was brilliant! Oh Katniss! Where is she?

I thrash about, trying to sit up to see if Katniss is also in here, attached to another bed, but I can't see her anywhere, but I suppose it _is_ a small room. She's probably next-door or something.

Suddenly, my attention is drawn to my leg. The wound where Cato slashed me has completely disappeared, there's no trace it had ever even been there. But that's not all. All of the scars from the tracker-jacker stings have vanished too, and even the ones from burns in the bakery have gone. Oh, I get it. The Capitol must be making me 'pristine' for the victor's ceremony, though I suppose that now, it shall be the _victors' _ceremony. The placement of that apostrophe makes all the difference.

Ah, I can't wait to see Katniss again, is what I think, before I drift back into unconsciousness.

* * *

The ceremony's about to begin. I haven't seen Katniss yet, but I expect they'll just be wanting to keep the reunion 'til we're live, make it all dramatic for the audience. I haven't asked Haymitch or Portia or my prep team about it, I mean, they all seem to be in a mood about something already. But I haven't asked about that either.

I stand on a metal plate, quite similar to the one that lifted me up into the arena, but this one does not warn me of a terrible doom. This time, the plate means joy will be coming soon, it means being reunited with those I love, with no more fear of being murdered in my sleep. I can hear the crowd through the stage above me, and the plate begins to rise up towards a hole above. Not long now, I think. Not long until I can see you again, Katniss.

* * *

I don't understand.

I've been sat here on my victor's chair watching the highlights of the Games for I don't know how long, maybe around two and a half hours by now, but there's still no sign of Katniss. She must be here. Or maybe they're having two separate ceremonies for each of us? No, I doubt it. I bet they'll just be bringing her in at the end, and then we'll embrace each other and it'll be even more emotional. The Capitol can make a good show in that respect. It's sort of unfair on Katniss, though; we are joint victors since they changed the rules.

The highlights have almost ended now, I think. We're just up to where Katniss is giving me those 'sugar berries' of hers. I suppose I can forgive her for that. It has meant we've both won, after all. Now I see what's happened while I've slept. At the Cornucopia, there's a table with four backpacks with numbers on them, 2, 5, 11 and 12. All of a sudden, the girl from 5 runs out of the Cornucopia and grabs her backpack, but receives an arrow straight through her chest, and a cannon booms. It feels awkward to see Katniss kill someone like that, but I can't hate her for it, because I guess she _did _do it for us. Now Katniss charges over to the table, taking the pack with the number 12 on it. She's running back to the woods, when a knife fires into her head, just above her eyebrow, and the force makes her fall straight onto her back. I cannot hide the fear in my expression now, I'm literally on the edge of my seat as Clove walks up to her. How can she get away now?

Clove pins her down, and thanks her for taking care of 'little Foxy' for her. Katniss screams out for me, and Clove looks about. But of course, I am not there, and to show it, the screen switches to a picture of me asleep in the cave. Wow, I really _do _look ill there. Clove realises I'm not nearby, and turns back to Katniss, taunting her about me and Rue, and about how Clove's going to kill her 'just like we did your pathetic ally'. Then she's about to carve out Katniss' lips with her knife, but she's lifted high off of her by Thresh. Clove screams out for Cato, but he's too far away and Thresh bashes in her skull with a blunt rock. When he drops her back down to the ground, it's evidently obvious that she won't live long with that dent in her head.

Thresh is about to kill Katniss the same way he did Clove now, and raises his rock high, but he stops. He tells her to run, but only because she helped Rue, so Katniss does as he says, just as Cato rushes over to Clove. As Katniss reaches the woods, she turns around and readies her bow. What is she doing? Why isn't she just running back to the cave?

She takes aim, and fires. The arrow hits Thresh right through the neck as he runs off with 11 and 2's packs, and his cannon fires as he flops to the ground. I didn't know Katniss could be so... so... I just didn't know she could do things like that. But I suppose these Games can really change you.

Cato stays watching over Clove, holding her hand, as yet another cannon goes off. It has to be Clove's, as now Cato stands and turns to Katniss. He charges at her, but her arrow is already steady on her bow, and she fires straight at him. Cato collapses onto his back, and it's not long before his cannon booms too. I watch as Katniss sits down on a rock and takes a sigh of relief. So this is it. This is the moment that we won. I take a sigh of relief myself now. I don't have to watch any more. But where _is _Katniss?

A booming voice from the screen tells me that the Hunger Games are not yet over for screen-Katniss. It's Claudius Templesmith's voice, but he certainly isn't telling us that we've won.

'Greetings to the final contestants of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games,' he says. That isn't accurate. I was knocked out. No greetings for me. "Greetings to _one _of the final contestants of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games" would have been better. Claudius Templesmith continues, 'The earlier revision has been revoked. Closer examination of the rule book has disclosed that only one winner may be allowed. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour.' But that means that only one of us could win. No! But that means that Katniss... No! She's smart. She'll have thought of some way to get around the rules, so we could both come home. The Capitol's just trying to keep me on my toes, get a good reaction.

On the giant screen, I see Katniss running off at high-speed into the forest. Why is she in such a rush? Does she actually want me dead? Have I been wrong about her the whole time? No, I tell myself, if she wanted me dead then I wouldn't be here right now. I continue to watch Katniss charge through the trees. All of a sudden, she stops, then runs back a few metres to a bush of berries. On a close-up, I can see she has an 'idea face' on, as she picks a few handfuls of berries and puts them in a pouch. I wonder what the berries are for. Surely she isn't just planning to lunch on them later? I watch her carry on through the woods, until I hear a snarl, and she stops. A load of strange dog-like creatures appear, and I can't help but think they look very familiar in some way. Katniss sets her arrow ready, but it's easy to tell that she won't be able to fend them off, there must be over twenty of them, and they've surrounded her. But she has to try.

Katniss drops her bow, arrow and quiver to the ground. What? She's just giving up? But before the beasts attack, I can hear her say something.

'I'm sorry, P-' she says, but then she either can't continue because of the attack, or the rest is just covered by growling and the tearing of flesh. Less than a minute later, I hear, along with the whole of Panem, Katniss' cannon.

Katniss' cannon. Katniss is dead. But that's not the worst. Because it's my fault she's dead. Because I didn't stop her going to the Cornucopia for the Feast. And I'll also never know what she was going to say. P... was she going to say Peeta? Or Prim? Or Panem? I'll never know. And I'll never know about those berries either.

My mind is blank and my body frozen, as a small girl carries the victor's crown to me on a cushion. But the cruel smile that President Snow wears as he places it on my head and says, 'Congratulations,' wakes me back up to reality. It's his fault we were in those Games. It's his fault Katniss died. It's his fault I can never again feel truly happy. So for the first time in my life, I lash out.

I throw myself at him, knocking him over, before punching him and kicking him and doing whatever I can to hurt him. The crowd is invisible to me now. And it doesn't scare me that he can take my life with just a click of his fingers. I'm not certain I want to live anymore. I just want _him _to die.

I'm pulled off of Snow by two pairs of strong arms, and I thrash to try and break free, to try and get back at him, but the attempt is futile. The crowd re-emerges, and I can see the looks of shock and horror on their faces, hear all of their gasps. And to my dismay, President Snow stands straight up to his feet, as though nothing had even happened. He wears an evil smile upon his face.

'It's alright,' he tells the crowd, 'It's not his fault.' Now he turns to face me, his staring snake eyes drilling into my skull, 'A lot has happened while he slept.'

* * *

**Please review! This is a one-shot for now but I might continue it... some day...**


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